Signaling apparatus.



PATENTED MAR. s, 1904. 0. LI'TDDEGKENS. SIGNALING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 21. 1903.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OrEIcE.

OTTO LUDDEOKENS, OF BRESLAU, GERMANY.

SIGNALING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATIONforming part of Letters Patent No. 754,152, dated March 8,1904:. Application filed February 21, 1903. Serial No. 144,497. (Nomodel.)

To all whowt it may concern:

Be it known that I, O'rro LUDDECKENS, engineer, a subject of the King ofPrussia, German Emperor, residing at 51 Grartenstrasse, Breslau,Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SignalingApparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to improvements in signaling apparatus, and inparticular to a signaling apparatus for mines.

In mining-shafts there are usually three places between which anunderstanding must be kept up in order to properly control the drawingoperationnamely, the bottom of the pit or sole of a gallery, thepit-mouth where the hang-bench is situated, and the drawingengine. Theengineman should not start his engine before all the necessarypreparations at the bottom and at the hang-bench have been completed.For this reason the signaling apparatus was hitherto usually arranged insuch a way that the operators at the sole of the pit first transmittedtheir orders to the pit-mouth and that the operators at the pitmouth intheir turn passed on the signal to the engine as soon as thepreparations for the commencement of the drawing operation had beencompleted. This system, however, is subject to several disadvantages,one of which is that the double transmission of the signals naturallydiminishes their reliability. Another disadvantage is that the enginemanaccording to this system receives no warning beforehand that he will becalled upon to start his engine, and therefore necessarily loses thetime that is required for setting the engine to starting position.

My invention consists in a signaling arrangement which avoids thesedisadvantages by providing two separate signal-receiving devices in theengine-room, one of which is controlled by signal-transmitting deviceslocated at the pit bottom and mouth, while the second is only controlledby a special auxiliary or final signal-transmitting device located atthe hang-bench. Thus the engineman is in a position to follow theinterchange of signals going on between the bottom and the mouth of thepit and to prepare his engine in good time for the reception of thefinal signal for starting.

The accompanying drawing is a diagrammatical illustration of the wireconnections, signal-transmitting devices, and signal-receiving devicesconstituting the arrangement that forms the subject of my presentinvention.

In the diagram, 0 is a source of electricity of any usual kind.

g and g are two signal-transmitting devices situated the one at thepit-bottom and the other at the hang-bench.

7), 72 and b are three signal-receiving devices situated at thepit-bottom,the pit-mouth, and the engine-room, respectively.

Z, Z and Z are electric conductors connecting the signal-receivingdevices with each other and with the signal-transmitting devices g and 9it It are handles adapted in the usual way for operating thesignal-transmitting devices g and g by means of the contact-pieces c, c,0 and c (Z is a separate auxiliary signal-transmitting device located atthe hang-bench and preferably constructed like a telegraphing-key. a isthe corresponding auxiliary signal-receiving device placed in theengineroom and preferably constructed as a single stroke alarm-bell.

Z and Z are conductors connecting d with (l/ and with the battery 0.

As will be seen in the drawing, the signaltransmitting devices g and gare connected in parallel to each other and in series with the threesignal-receiving devices 7/, b and b and consequently all threesignal-receiving devices are actuated simultaneously as soon as eitherof the two signal-transmitting devices is operated. On the other hand,it will be apparent from the connections shown that the auxiliarysignal-receiving device a in the engine-room is only actuated when thekey (Z at the hang-bench is depressed.

The operation of the whole system is as follows: Between pit-bottom andpit-mouth an interchange of signals takes place by means of thesignal-transmitting devices 9 and g and the correspondingsignal-receiving devices. These may be of any known and usual type;butIprefer the three-magnet system, which is indicated in my diagram.The following are the lines taken by the current: When the operator atthe bottom turns the handle/ c of his signal-transmitting device, thecontact-piece 0 is brought into connection with c, 0 and 0 successively,and the current flows from the battery 0 over line Z, contact-piece 0,contactpieces 0', 0 and 0", respectively, lines Z, Z and Z over thecorresponding pairs of coils of the signal-receiving devices 6', Z and band back to the battery. The armatures of the signalreceiving deviceswill therefore perform a rotation synchronous with theTotation of thehandle is and will correspondingly actuate the pointers of thesignal-receiving devices. The engineman can therefore continuouslyfollow the proceedings at the bottom and mouth of the pit; but he shouldnot interfere in the operation until, the bell a in the engine-room issounded by a depression of the key (Z at the hang-bench. When this keyis depressed, the current takes the following path: battery 6, line Z,key 02, line Z bell a, and back to the battery. It will be readilyunderstood that a similar disposition can be adapted to servearrangements in which several soles are to be connected. In this caseevery sole is provided with a signal-transmitting device and allsignal-transmitting devices are arranged in parallel.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my saidinvention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare thatwhat I claim is- 1. In a signaling apparatus, the combination, with aplurality of signal-receiving de vices located one at eachsignal-station, and a plurality of signal-transmitting devices locatedone at each station except one, each transmitting device being arrangedto actuate all of the signal-receiving devices, of an auxiliarysignal-receiving device located at the station which has nosignal-transmitting device, and an auxiliary signal-transmitting devicelocated at one of the remaining stations and arranged to operate thesaid auxiliary signal-receiving device.

2. In a signal apparatus for mines, the combination, with threesignal-receiving devices located at the pit-bottom, pit-mouth andengine-room respectively, of two signal-trans mitting devices located atthe pit-bottom and pit-mouth respectively, and each arranged to actuateall of the signal-transmitting devices, an auxiliary signal-receivingdevice located at the engine-room, and an auxiliary signaltransmittingdevice located at the pit-mouth, and arranged to actuate the auxiliarysignalreceiving device.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of twowitnesses.

OTTO LUDDECKENS.

Witnesses ERNST KATZ, ALBERT SCHENK.

